Ming Dynasty: Summoning game players at the beginning

Chapter 63 As long as the reinforcements arrive, everything will be fine
When the 4,000-strong army marching westward arrived at Baihu Tunbao, all the hereditary flag officers had disappeared.

Only some poor soldiers who could not run were left, hiding in the house or kneeling at the door waiting for the "righteous army" to decide their fate.

When the military households saw that the leader was Shuanzhu and others, they secretly cursed these bad boys for actually leading the bandits into their home.

The families of Shuanzhu and others secretly rejoiced that as long as there were some of their own in the begging army, the lives of the whole family would be safe.

Some military households plucked up the courage to look up, and actually saw familiar faces who had "gone to war against the bandits" in the team entering the fort. It turned out that they were not killed by the beggar army, but were even incorporated into its ranks!
The soldiers kneeling on the ground watched the begging soldiers holding high the "begging for life" banner and walking into the garrison. The strange thing was that after entering the garrison, they did not burn, kill, loot or rape women.

I just looked around in the earthen fort, as if I hadn't seen these ordinary buildings and earthen walls for thousands of years.

"It's really nice. It's almost the same as the Ming and Qing Dynasty garrisons I saw at tourist attractions."

"Indeed, you have to pay for tickets to visit real-life attractions. We can now watch the original, authentic version directly, and there are real extras to create the atmosphere for you."

"Then when we go to Chang'an next time, can we create a pure Tang Dynasty flavor?"

"What Chang'an? Chang'an in the Ming Dynasty was called Xi'an. Chang'an was a county under the jurisdiction of Xi'an."

"Spring and Autumn Period, Warring States Period, Qin, Han, Wei, Jin, Tang, Song and Ming Dynasties, each dynasty can designate an area as a cultural base."

"Wake up, Ming Dynasty is not dead yet."

"This scene, these characters, this rich historical flavor, wow, if the game officials collaborated with ancient film and television dramas on special effects, and added these free extras, and filmed a scene of a decisive battle between two armies, with tens of thousands of extras rushing to that point, that would be called an epic movie, right?"

"That's right! If we could customize some simple costumes and have celebrities grant us facial "authorization," we could film thousands of years of ancient Chinese dramas here. Then what's the point of having a film and television base?"

"You guys are really imaginative."

"Zhang Xianzhong" didn't care what these idiots had in mind. As the "commander" of the Western Expedition Army, his target was not only the Baihu Garrison, but also the entire city of Xinyang.

The commander-in-chief of the 10,000-strong coalition army is still "Wang Tutu", but in order to facilitate the command of the front-line troops, all infantry regiments that carry out independent missions have elected temporary commanders.

"Come this way, my king!"

Shuanzhu was very enthusiastic in leading the way. He pointed out the granary and armory to the beggars, and explained in detail the layout of the captain's house and the location where the money and grain were hidden, as if he had been here many times and was familiar with the place.

Food and money were carried out and piled up on the parade ground.

"Anyone who helps us carry tools to attack Xinyang will be rewarded with money and grain! In addition, anyone who provides important intelligence regarding Xinyang that we verify is useful will be rewarded with 20 shi of grain!"

Twenty stone of millet!
These days, droughts are rampant and prices in the north have risen several times. Silver and money are not as attractive as they used to be, but the value of food has doubled.

The military households crowded together immediately started talking about it. Twenty stone of millet was enough to feed the whole family for a year.

With the reward in front of them, the military households immediately threw away the ideas of "loyalty to the emperor and patriotism" and "beheading for collaborating with the enemy". They said whatever they knew, but in the end nothing they said was of any use.

"The situation has been bad in recent years. The water level in the Xi River has dropped significantly, and the moat has dried up."

Several masons, bricklayers, woodworkers, and stoneworkers shouted, "Other volunteers attacked Xinyang a few years ago, and there are still several hidden wounds in the north of the city!"

"Do you remember where you are?"

"The villain remembers."

"it is good!"

Zhang Xianzhong was overjoyed, as this was the important information they needed.

Attacking a city has always been a daunting and thorny problem, whether in the era of cold weapons or in the current era of firearms and artillery. It is common for an army of 10,000 to be blocked by an army of 100,000.

"Zhang Xianzhong" was disgusted by the siege battles in many games, so he would have a psychological trauma whenever he encountered the word "siege".

The "hole blasting method" is not a panacea, but burying explosives at hidden injury locations is equivalent to attacking old injuries on the human body, and the lethality will definitely be twice as effective with half the effort!
"Bring out your coffins. We've bought them..."

"Ah? A coffin?"

The soldiers looked at each other and whispered about how coffins could be used to attack the city.
Carrying a coffin to attack a city tells the enemy that you are prepared to die in battle, destroys the enemy's prestige, and boosts your own morale?
……

The beggar soldiers are coming!

As the centurions of officers from various garrisons fled into the Acropolis, the news of the enemy attack quickly spread throughout the city.

The government army that went on the eastern expedition to suppress the rebels was badly defeated, and all the military officers, both large and small, who accompanied the army were killed in the battle. The highest-ranking officer in the city was only the fourth-rank commander.

He mobilized all the soldiers in the city who were still able to fight to assist in the defense, and barely managed to put together two thousand people, which was not enough to defend the four gates.

The commander climbed up the tower and looked into the distance. To the south of Xinyang City, the water level of the Xihe River had plummeted. The bird's-eye view of the entire city looked like a pistol pointing to the west.

Although there are not many soldiers defending the city, the number of beggars is not large either?

The bandits who gradually surrounded them from the west, north and east numbered only a few thousand, and there was no ordinary "grand scene" of bandits taking tens of thousands of civilians with them.

Isn't it rumored that the beggar bandits mobilized the people to rebel and had tens of thousands of soldiers? Otherwise, how could they defeat 10,000 government troops?

Could it be that the bandits were so arrogant that they divided their troops into several groups to attack the county town separately, hoping to catch them all in one fell swoop?
The commander immediately denied this conjecture, saying, "Impossible! Absolutely impossible!"

No matter how bold the bandits are, they would not be so arrogant. If the city cannot be captured after a long siege and the government troops come to rescue, the bandits will have no choice but to flee. Moreover, it is too arrogant to gather thousands of people and dream of taking over a big city like a prefecture or a state.

Then there is only one possibility——

After the government army was defeated, all the officials in the nearby county town abandoned the city and fled, and were taken advantage of by the beggars.

The main force of the bandits were burning, killing, looting and indulging in pleasure in the county town, with no desire to make progress.

This newly joined "ragtag army" failed to get a share of the pie, so they had to try their luck in the farther Xinyang. After fighting in a circle of garrisons, they found that Xinyang City had high walls and thick defenses, so they could only temporarily surround the entire city and wait for reinforcements.

That’s right, the commander nodded heavily, it must be like this.

The main force of this bandit army was deployed at the east gate, where the crowd was denser.

As for the north gate, the bandits at the west gate used barriers such as carriages and large shields to create an "iron barrel" posture that trapped the city.

He felt relieved after confirming that the enemy troops would indeed besiege the city for a long time and wait for reinforcements.

The city's money and grain reserves were still adequate, so they also sent scouts to the provincial governor, Governor Xiong of Xiangyang, to ask for help.

As long as we hold on until the main force of the government army arrives to support us, everything will be fine.

However, the loud sound of cannon fire outside the east gate shook his heart. Several shells either hit the city wall heavily or flew over the wall and fell into the houses in the city.

The commander-in-chief looked through the lookout and saw several cannons spewing white smoke among the enemy troops.

The bandits actually captured the government army’s cannons and were able to use them!

(End of this chapter)